Australia-facing operators under threat from new web domain rules

Operators targeting the Australian market will have to meet new eligibility rules relating to Australia-facing web domains or face losing ownership of locally registered sites.

The new rules introduced by the .au Domain Administration Limited (auDA) will come into force from 12 April and will apply to com.au, net.au, org.au and asn.au domain prefixes.

All .au domain names created, transferred, or renewed on or after this date will be subject to the new licensing rules. Under these new standards, to retain ownership of any domain under these prefixes, the business concerned must meet a new Australian presence test.

This means the licence holder must be an Australian-registered company, or have some other direct connection with Australia, such as holding a registered trading name or foreign company licence.

Domain name licence holders can also meet the Australian presence test by being the owner of an Australian registered trademark or application.

This method is mostly used by foreign entities who would not otherwise satisfy the Australian presence requirement, including offshore online gambling operators.

Under the current rules, operators using Australian trademarks as their basis for operating in the country were able to choose a domain name ‘closely and substantially connected’ to that trademark.

However, under the new rules, the domain name chosen must be an exact match to the words registered under that trademark and in the same order.

For example, if an operator’s trademark was the cat sat on the mat, then its domain name is limited to thecatsatonthemat.au or catsatonthemat.au. No other domain name or shortening of the domain name is allowed.

Renting or leasing of domain names to third parties is also outlawed under the new standards.

Operators seeking to retain their respective .au domains can file new trademark applications with the Australian government’s trademark office.

Alternatively, they can retain the domain by transferring it to another business entity which meets the presence test.

In the new licensing rules, companies can now apply for and hold .au domain name licences on behalf of a different company in their corporate group, as long as that related company meets the Australian presence requirement.

The exception to this is registrars, which cannot apply for or hold a .au domain name on behalf of a related body corporate as this may cause a conflict of interest.